How do I travel with my fish?

[BrookeLea]

Hey guys,

Tomorrow I'm driving from Savannah, GA to New Orleans, LA. It's usually a 10 hour drive for me, but this time some people are following me in a second car and they like to stop for potty breaks quite often, so it may take closer to 12 hours this time. I've got to take all my fish with me, but I'm not quite sure how to do it. I can move the bettas just fine, they're easy. I'm just concerned with my livebearers and my fry.

I've got mollies, guppies, platies neon tetras and what appears to be an endler of sorts in a 29 gallon tank. How do I move these guys? My original idea was to empty their tank out most of the way, put the fish in a bucket while I'm moving the tank to my car, refill the tank until it's about half full while it's in my car and then put the fish back in it. I'm not quite sure if that's such a good idea, as the water would get very rough and splash around in my car. I've never moved this many fish before.

Also, I've got a 10 gallon fry tank with about 30 fry in it who range from about 3 weeks to one month in age. What should I do about those little guys?

What do I do in the car as far as aeration, filtration, temperature, etc? Should I leave the fish in their tanks, or should I move them into plastic bags the way the fish store sends them home or should I put them in buckets?

If anyone has any advice, I could really use some and I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance!

 

[willtang3000]

I would put them in bags and then put that in a styrofoam box to keep the heat

 

[BrookeLea]

I would put them in bags and then put that in a styrofoam box to keep the heat

Thanks! I didn't think of the styrofoam box for the livebearers, but that's what I was going to do for my bettas. Sometimes it's the most obvious things that I can't think of on my own...

How many fish should I put to a bag? Should I put them in their own bags? Should I watch out for the male/femal ratio if I put multiples in bags?

I've got:

5 neon tetras who I'm sure can all go into the same bag.

3 female platies and 1 male platy who I think would be ok in a bag together.

1 female molly and 2 male mollies (I'm not so sure that these guys should be kept in a bag together. The only reason I'm keeping that ratio in the tank is so that I can keep some of my female molly fry.)

1 female guppy and 1 male endler. (He likes to harass her, so I'm not sure about these two sharing a bag either.)

4 cory cats that can all share a bag, as they absolutely love eachother.

Also, 1 of the mollies and 1 of the platies is very pregnant. Should I put them in their own bags?

How should I split them up?

 

[willtang3000]

you should put the males and females in different bags because if harrassed in a bag they get very stressed and probably won't make it especially the pregnant ones

 

[BrookeLea]

you should put the males and females in different bags because if harrassed in a bag they get very stressed and probably won't make it especially the pregnant ones

Thanks, I'll do that. What about the males? Will they get aggressive with eachother if they're kept in bags together? I should just put them all in seperate bags to be safe, I'm just not sure if I've got enough room for that.

You're avatar is killing me, by the way. I have to laugh every time I look at it. It's sooo funny!

 

[BrookeLea]

OH! And what about the fry? Should I put them in bags too? How many per bag? (Sorry for all the questions, I just dont' want anything to go wrong.)

 

[Tolak]

Fish bought & sold at auctions are bagged for longer than 10 hours & they do fine. You can put male & female livebearers in the same bag, that's how the sell trios & reverse trios. These fish sit on a table at room temp for 12-14 hours, go to a new home and do fine.

Don't feed them for 24 hours before bagging. This empties out the digestve tract & prevents them from getting the water more filthy than it would if they deficated in it for hours. Cut a small piece of sponge off of a mature filter, around a 1/4" cube, & add it to the bag. This will convert any ammo to NO2, and then to NO3.

The cooler is a good idea not only to keep the temp stable, but to reduce stress & activity. Most fish are less active in the dark.

Do a good water change the day before bagging, and fill bags with 1/3 water, 2/3 air.

The 30 fry should be fine split between 3 bags.

Tolak

 

[cudaman68]

You can also add Jungle Labs Bag Buddies water conditioning tablets to the water they work great and I use them when I ship my fish. Get the regular bags we use for fish don't use the ziplock bags. You can order this stuff from The Shipping barn if you don't have it .
http/www.theshippingbarn.com/
your local fish store may be able to sell you some bags also

 

[BrookeLea]

Thanks for the help everybody! The trip has been pushed back a day due to terrible weather, but we're all prepared for the journey now! I was holding off on feeding the guys for the 24 hours before the trip. It's been over 24 hours now. They'll be glad to know that they can eat today! Little do they know that I'll be witholding their food again tomorrow! hah